Can anyone answer this, do schools prefer kids who pushed their limits and pulled B’s in Honors Track and AP? Or kids who ace the College Track? I’m thinking they’d rather have the kids who challenged themselves in tougher classes. We have one in college already, but she attended a private school that was all college prep and limited honors availability and only .5 added for honors. It wasn’t a big factor. My second child has chosen to move to public school where he is in all honors courses, pulling B’s, and gets a full point added for honors classes.
You may want to ask college counselors at school. Our kids go to a private, academically-rigorous school with standard-, honors-, and AP-level classes in many areas. The counselors’ rule of thumb is that you should move down a level (eg, from honors to standard) if you are not getting an 85 (on a 100 scale) in your current classes.
Also depends on where the student aspires to go to college; large elite publics want higher grades with moderate rigor; if a kid has b+'s/a-'s, even in honors and Ap’s, they are not getting in to, let’s say UMich…Better off adjusting the schedule so that honors and AP’s are taken only in subjects the student is confident they can achieve at least an A-…
Privates will be much, much more holistic…b’s in honors will get a student pretty far…
fWIW, I have multiple students over the last few years who have been deferred etc. from large publics with all honors and AP’s but “B” grades…And others easily accepted with “a”'s in regular classes…it is a delicate balancing act that needs to be assessed in each individual situation…
Thanks for the responses…it is a tough decision because I also worry about his being prepared for college. Her private school was rigorous and promised she would be ready for college. My daughter’s GPA wasn’t that great (partially from a year long injury and partially that they do not inflate grades as much as the local public schools), but her SATs were decent. She almost did not get into the school she wanted to attend. Now that she is there she is doing well and knows kids from public school who easily got in with high GPA’s, but they are having difficulty keeping up with the work load and not doing well at all. So if I let my son drop down to College Prep he may find it easier to get into a school, but will he be as prepared?
^^and therein lies the rub…we, as parents, took the road that it was more important that they be prepared for college…
Has turned out well for both kids…but, each parent has different goals for their own children…
Some publics are rigorous enough in regular classes…others, don’t even have rigor in their AP’s…
Do you know what schools interest you? My son took 10 AP courses and got Bs in most and As in about 1/3. He got in every where he applied including an ivy. But, the state flagship was the most hesitant acceptance ( wanted to see 1 more quarter of grades) because they do not weight or give any credit for a more challenging course load.
He is well prepared for college. And he won’t freak out if he gets Bs in some college courses like students do who are used to getting straight As. Also challenging courses help you adapt to the work load you will find.
If you live in CA and are looking at UCs, it will be important to understand the criteria they use to look at applicants. You can find that by googling the common data set forth school and then looking at how important they rate all things in the applicant.
Good luck!
One thing I know for sure: If part of your goal is to be in the top 10% or whatever of your graduating class – at my son’s school, it’s better to get As in the academic classes than Bs in the AP classes. It turned out that a lot of merit aid at the 8 schools that have accepted S so far had a simple chart – if you are in the upper 10%, you get this much $ in aid; if you are in the upper 25%, you get this $. That’s something that surprised me. Also, many colleges only want to know your UW GPA.
For the most competitive schools, you’ll need to be getting A’s in the hardest classes. For others, like rodney said, it’s a balancing act. In most cases, I’d say take honors classes in strong areas and academic in others.
My daughter took all Honors classes and almost all AP classes offered (8) at her private school. She got mostly A’s but a few B’s due to the rigor of her classes . Because her school weights AP and H classes she will graduate 2/318. The cut off for a’s is 93 not 90 like some school so no grade inflation issues. She ended up with 3.8 unweighted and 4.8 weighted Gpa. She got 31 on ACT and 2120 on SAT. She had solid ECs and some volunteer work. She got into U of IL (honors), UCSD, UCI (honors and scholarship), USC (spring admit). She is wait listed at ND and was rejected by Stanford (EA), UCLA and UCB.
My retrospective thoughts on this whole process: 1) there is appears to be no “rhyme or reason” to much of this process" 2) Of course it helps to be a minority or a legacy but schools also give preference to 1st generation college students and anyone else with a sob story - my D has none of these - no “disadvantage” is a disadvantage these days. 3) her UW GPA probably hurt her at UCLA and UCB - plus we are out of state. 4) Her interview with USC probably helped her. 5) While ND says they put the most emphasis on the rigor of classes, esp senior year, she was only waitlisted. 6) It’s nothing like 1981 when I applied to colleges!
CollegeMom; FYI: Being out of state you may not realize that CA schools stopped giving extra credit for honors classes some time ago. Don’t know if this makes a difference in your D’s WGPA or not. From my kids experience, most schools do recalculate the GPA based on their criteria.
UCLA, USB and UCSD are all very tough schools to get into, even more so lately. Congrats to her for getting accepted to UCSD.
It all depends upon college wants to go to. If public with scholarships-go for GPA. If a private-go for rigor.
I thought my son wanted a private college, so we focused on rigor. His GPA was lower than it should have been, however he is having a great time in college now. He is doing well in his classes and because of his AP classes, he came in with a lot of credits. He also bypassed some of the intro classes amd going into classes within his major as a freshman. True he missed out on scholarships, but he is not overwhelmed with college load because he was accustomed to it in high school.
UC’s cap the weighted classes at 8 semesters. And they do give “weight” to some honors courses, it’s decided on a school by school, course by course basis. There is a list on the doorways website: [University</a> of California Doorways Home](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/]University”>http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/)
The list can be surprizing–D’s Chem Honors course was weighted, but the Psych IB SL (much more work) was not weighted. If you are interested in the UC’s it’s helpful to look at the list before choosing high school courses–and it can explain some admit decisions, too.
I have found it frustrating that most midwestern schools ( cant speak for others) look at weighted GPA for admittance ( with ACT scores, etc) but unweighted for money. I understand WHY but seems like there should be some $$ for the BWRK too. My ds is very close to top 10% but its upsetting to him that kids play games… take pass/fail and maybe only 6 or 7 graded classes when he takes 8 ( waived lunch),he has refused to play those games. very frustrating. Then there are kids that takes 1or 2 Honors classes which dont compare to APs… oh well.
As other people have said, it depends on the college, and it also depends on the student; with many schools, GPA ends up being just a part of the equation, and involvement outside of school can make up for a few Bs. That said, from everything I’ve heard, colleges prefer Bs in honors classes because they want students that are willing to challenge themselves. I don’t know how much I’m an example of the norm, but to add my personal experience to the mix: I got a range of As and Bs in mostly honors classes, and I got into all 8 of my schools, including Georgetown, Claremont McKenna, and Swarthmore, and now I’m headed to UMD with a full ride. So at least in my case, challenging myself in high school paid off.
if you’re trying to attend one the elites, they would rather have you with an A in a normal class than a B in a honors class, since colleges rank by unweighted GPA…I myself was a bit of an AP nut but got a B in one science class…and now I look at envy at the person in my calc bc class (im the TA, took the class in soph year) who got into caltech…